Geek Pizza

Before doctors had licenses and hospitals had beds, there was a woman with a black bag who came in the dark. She delivered the babies and prepared the dead and carried the knowledge of what keeps a community alive through generations when no one else would. Tonight we talk about the granny witch, the Cherokee Corn Mother Selu, and the women of Appalachian tradition who stood at every threshold birth and death and everything in between. This one is for them.

Spring in the Appalachian mountains is not just a season.It’s a medicine chest opening up. This week we’re going into the garden and into the traditionof the granny witch, the herb woman, the yarb doctor, the neighbor lady who kept communities alive with nothing but what grew in the holler and what her mother taught her. In this episode: • The granny witch tradition who these women really were and why the mountain couldn’t survive without them.• The plants of the Appalachian garden dandelion, willow bark, sassafras, foxglove, witch hazel, ginseng and more.• Willow bark and the aspirin story how mountain folk medicine became modern pharmacy and nobody remembered the woman who started it.• Honey in the mountain tradition from the kitchen shelf to the sickbed.• Telling the Bees the Appalachian tradition of whispering death to the hive.• An original short story What Della Knew about a granny witch, a willow tree and the knowledge that passes forward.• The Green Hag vs. the granny witch what D&D gets wrong about the wise woman of the woods .• A wisdom closer to carry out the door with you. Referenced this episode: Roots Branches & Spirits by H.Byron Ballard Find Geek Pizza Media at geekpizzamedia.com and on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. New episodes every two weeks. #AppalachianFolklore#GrannyWitch #PlantFolklore #HerbLore #Appalachia #Podcast #DungeonsAndDragons#GreenHag #Folklore #Storytelling #GeekPizzaMedia #TellingTheBees #WillowBark#MountainMagic #SpringGarden

Season One is here. Welcome back to the Geek Pizza MediaPodcast. We’re kicking off a brand new format short, focused episodesevery two weeks, each one tied to the natural calendar and the folklore, lore, and mountain wisdom of the Appalachian hills. Then we follow it straight into the fiction, the games, and the stories we’re all trying to tell. This week we’re starting where spring starts with death. In this episode: • The death omens of the Appalachian mountains screech owls, stopped clocks, death moths, and dogs thathowl at nothing• Where these omens came from the Scots-Irish, Cherokee and African American traditions that layered together inthe hollows• An original short story The Fourth Morning about a grandmother, a screech owl and what warnings are reallyfor• The Banshee in D&D vs. the Bean Síthe of Irish and Scottish folklore what the Monster Manual got right, what the mountain knows that the stat block doesn’t• A wisdom closer to carry with you Runtime: 17 minutes Find Geek Pizza Media at geekpizzamedia.com and on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. New episodes every two weeks. #AppalachianFolklore#DeathOmens #GrannWitch #Folklore #Podcast #DungeonsAndDragons #Banshee#Appalachia #Storytelling #GeekPizzaMedia

Come on in. Gather round the hearth.Once a year, folklore tells us, the world thins. The wind sounds like hooves where hooves should not be, and ancient riders move along the edges of reality.In this episode of Geek Pizza, we explore the Wild Hunt as more than a ghost story. We look at it as a moving boundary, a reminder that thresholds, not dates, are what truly change us.Along the way, we turn to The Hogfather as a modern myth that understands an old truth. Belief is infrastructure. Rituals do not just celebrate the world. They hold it together. And when belief falters, something else still rides the track.This is a winter story about doorways, crossroads, and the danger of standing halfway through a choice.Because New Year’s does not change you.Stepping across a threshold does.

A Christmas ghost story from the Appalachian holler.This Geek Pizza Holiday Special reimagines A Christmas Carol as a fireside folk tale set in a coal-town valley, filled with bottle trees, candlelit windows, and restless spirits.Eben Crane has money, property, and power, but on Christmas Eve, he is forced to face the cost of a life lived cold. Three spirits walk him through memory, consequence, and the future still waiting to be changed.Atmospheric. Narrative. Appalachian to the bone.Light the fire.Listen close.Christmas is knocking.

From the misty lochs of Scotland to the deltas of Africa, every river has its ghosts. Join me by the hearth as we delve into tales of the Kelpie, the Washer at the Ford, the Nøkk, the Lorelei, the Water Panther, and Mami Wata spirits, which remind us that water remembers.Come on in, kinfolk, the creek’s whispering tonight.

Gather round the hearth for a Halloween tale born from the misty hollers and the old country beyond. In this special episode of Geek Pizza, Nathaniel tells the story of Elias Boone, a young miner who makes a desperate bargain at the crossroads for the gift of music. But when the debt comes due, it is not the Devil who rides to collect. It is The Rider, whose blue flame burns with the light of every soul it has claimed.Between the fiddle strings, the whispers of Granny Roots, and the echoes of Robert Johnson’s Cross Road Blues, this story carries you deep into the folklore that bridges the Appalachian Mountains and the old Irish myths that inspired them.Settle in close, kinfolk. The fire is warm, but the wind outside carries hoofbeats.Original Story by: Nathaniel King

Step off the porch and into the yard, where old magic still hums in the wind. From haint blue paint to bottle trees and iron gates, we dig into the traditions that kept mountain homes safe and the stories that still guard the holler when the night gets quiet.

Geek Pizza: A Slice of Life is a podcast about the stories and adventures that make up geek culture. Each week, host Nathaniel King talks about video games, movies, tabletop role-playing games, and folklore. Every episode explores how stories shape our world and how a bit of magic can be found in everyday life.Nathaniel is a lifelong gamer, storyteller, and Army veteran who grew up in the Appalachian Mountains. He brings his love of myths, nature, and creative storytelling to each episode. Whether you enjoy rolling dice, watching fantasy movies, or learning about old legends, Geek Pizza has something for you.So grab a slice, sit back, and join the conversation about the games, stories, and ideas that keep our imaginations alive.